Divine Intervention
by Yotsubadancesintherain5
Summary: Whether it be fate or pure chaos, despair isn't so bad in this world. Part sixteen of the Fairytale/Supernatural series.


In another world, another timeline, the loss of magic would have resulted in an eldritch abomination of a wish. It was either that or destroying the object of magic, though that left to another, albeit less painful, death.

But that changed.

The waves of the beach lapped at the shore. A night like this would have been perfect for ruminating, staring out at the endless stars. But on the pathway, a battle was taking place.

The wraiths gurgled as the magical girl cut through their bodies. She held two heavy gauntlets in her hands and tore through the wraiths with ease.  
Black curls framed her face. She was sixteen years old, just a few years before she would have been unfit for Kyubey's wish-granting, and her dark brown eyes burned with concentration.  
She smiled at her attackers, their gibberish weak and low.

"Hope you weird ghosts know you've been bested by the great Ruby."

She struck through all of them with a punch, and they broke apart. Grief Cubes scattered like rain onto the concrete.

Ruby scooped up the Grief cubes and placed them on her Soul Gem. The scarlet, square shaped gem lost its inky black color and Ruby sighed with relief.

"That feels better."

She changed from her magical girl outfit – it was a light red uniform, like a martial arts gi, with a band that held the outfit together around the waist – into her civilian outfit.  
Ruby stuffed the remaining Grief Cubes into her jeans pockets. Her stomach growled, and she stretched, her raglan shirt exposing a little of her russet skin.

There should be a cheap diner around here.

As she began to walk to the nearby tourist area, Ruby heard a melodious voice sing her name. She spun around, startled.  
"Who's there?" she yelled.

Something grabbed Ruby's hand and she was pulled forward. The grip was iron-tight and Ruby had to run to keep up with whatever it was, the exertion robbing her of breath to scream.  
When it stopped, Ruby cradled her hand and yelled again.

"What was that?! If you're one of those ghosts, I'll…"

She saw locks of blue hair stream from an alleyway. She ran and saw a girl lying on the pavement, dressed in a sea-green robe. The girl was lying on her back, her breathing shallow and her hand clutching at something near her neck.

"Gri…" she rasped. "Grief…"

An answer clawed at the back of Ruby's skull, and she dug into her pocket and took out a Grief Cube. She knelt down next the girl, and gently opened her hand. There was a trinket in her hand, shaped like a triangle, and the blue at the top drowning in murky darkness.

Ruby pressed the Grief Cube against the trinket, and the darkness was swallowed up by the cube.

The girl breathed deeply, and managed to sit up. She brushed her disheveled bangs out of her face and looked at Ruby.

"Thank you."

It wasn't as if Ruby had doubted that other magical girls existed. She knew about the Law of Cycles, and knew that the wraiths couldn't all be beaten by her - Even if her fists were so powerful.  
There was a difference between an imaginative magical girl and a flesh and blood one sitting across from her in the diner's booth.

The girl – her name was Sapphire – had gladly accepted Ruby's offer to eat. She sat demurely, her sporty attire resting comfortably on her tawny skin.  
Ruby couldn't meet her in the eyes. What was she supposed to say to the girl who had nearly been taken away by the Law of Cycles?

"Your hair – is it dyed?" she asked.

"Yes," Sapphire replied.

It was quiet again and Ruby rested her head in her hands, muffling a dismayed noise.  
She felt a hand touch her arm and she peeked through her fingers. Sapphire looked upon her with concern, the look in her eyes causing Ruby to feel her heart pounding.

"Are you all right?" Sapphire asked.

"I'm fine," was the reply. "That was so stupid of me to say, I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

Ruby furrowed her eyebrows. "That's not the problem. How do you feel?"

"A bit peckish."

"No, no, you were almost taken away by the Law of Cycles! Doesn't that make you feel anything?"

Sapphire gave a shrug of her shoulders. She drew her hand away and Ruby quietly wished it back.

"My wish was to never lose my way," she said simply. "And if I'm not taken away, then I am still on the right path."

For a moment, a smile graced her face and Ruby turned to take the two menus to distract Sapphire from the blush on her cheeks.

Somewhere, in a place where lost souls rested, was watching the Goddess. She brushed her pink locks of hair behind her ear as she looked upon the Earth. She was grinning at the planet and leaned back up from the bridge's railings.

She looked upon the domain for the magical girls who had perished, their souls resting in a safe place. There was a theme every day for the magical girls who lived here, something they enjoyed voting for. Today's theme was a Zen garden, and the Goddess decided it was time to announce that it was time for dinner and to vote for the next theme.

She heard someone call her name, her human name, and saw her Knight walk in, looking slightly peeved.

"That's the thirtieth time this week. Isn't a Goddess supposed to care for the souls already gone?"

The Goddess's grin didn't fade. "It's no harm. I believe some of the girls want some independence from me, and those who must rest have arrived here."

The Knight sighed in exasperation.

The Goddess chuckled and waved her hand to some magical girls passing by. "I am merely helping our fellow magical girls in their journey. It wouldn't hurt to invoke divine intervention."

"Divine interference is more like it…"

"Now, now, that's a bit negative, my friend."

"But you've done it took many times!" the Knight exclaimed. "And honestly, some you orchestrate are simply impossible to chalk up to coincidence! What about that man that _somehow_ fell into the path of the princess?"

"Some are not as graceful as our upper-classman."

"What about that girl who accidentally transformed in front of her two classmates?"

"They are all working together, though the poor girl is still quite unlucky."

"The girl who just so happened to get on the same train as her estranged family?"

"They are working out their problems and seem much happier for it."

The Knight gestured to the scene playing out before her. Ruby had accidentally knocked over the saltshaker and Sapphire was helping her clean it up.

"And what about this?"

The Goddess smiled. "Love will chase away despair."

She rested her hands on the railing of the bridge. "Being a magical girl is a burden, you know that. But I want these girls to live full lives. And more often than not what they need is a friend, a significant other, reconnection with family…"

The Goddess closed away the viewing of the scene.

"And sometimes that push may just come from a little divine intervention."

**A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on October 13th 2016**

**Madoka as a sort of intervention in magical girls' lives is a small headcanon of mine, because someone who has seen a lot of suffering (over the span of over a hundred timelines) would want to diminish it.**


End file.
